French geological disposal project: from siting to permitting

The results were presented during a public debate in 2013. Due to a strong local opposition the tools used for the debate were adapted and allowed to identify necessary evolutions to the project. During those 25 years of geological investigations and scientific work, more than 100 boreholes were drilled (6000 m cored) approximately 70000 samples were collected and more than 40 experiments conducted in the URL. During those same 25 years, the challenge of communication/dialogue with the society and integration in the host territory of Cigéo took a growing importance in the siting process. Today, and even more so tomorrow, in the implementation phase, this challenge while changing its specific objectives, takes a much more important part in the construction of the decisions concerning Cigéo. The necessity of co-constructing the decision making process with local stake holders imposes to ANDRA not to come up with fully investigated and demonstrated solutions but, on the contrary, to prepare and facilitate decisions through adapted discussions with the stakeholders. This applies to methodology and governance but also to decisions that refer to permitting and operations prior to Cigéo construction. For those operations, both reference and alternative scenarios are studied including the potential role of dedicated law enforcement authorities